People/Features

Honors students tour D.C.

Eight students in the Saint Vincent Honors Program accompanied by Dr. John Smetanka, honors program director and Dr. James Harrigan, assistant professor of political science enjoyed a fun filled educational trip to Washington, D.C. on Thursday, April 6. Highlighting the day was a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the U.S. Supreme Court led by Dr. Pam Evans, Supreme Court Research Librarian and Father Eugene Hemrick, member of the Advisory Council of the School for Humanities and Fine Arts and author of One Nation Under God, a book that details the religious symbolism on Capitol Hill including the Supreme Court. ( Read More | Responses )

Lambda Pi Eta to induct 21 new members

Lambda Pi Eta, a national honor society for communication majors and minors, will induct 21 Saint Vincent College students on April 21. The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. in the afternoon in the Westmoreland Room, Placid Hall. The keynote speaker, Dr. Ronald C. Arnett, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University, will address the group on "Communication Ethics in the 21st century." The Saint Vincent College community is encouraged to attend. ( Read More | Responses )

Saint Vincent students take part in mock interview experience

Fifteen area principals and central office administrators recently took part in a mock interview experience for the current elementary and secondary student teachers. Administrators from Derry Area, Greater Latrobe, Hempfield Area and Ligonier Valley School Districts participated in the exercise. Student teachers, as part of the requirements for the Professional Seminar, taught by Dr. Richard Nichols, had the opportunity to be interviewed by two different administrators. This exercise, in addition to providing the student teachers with an opportunity to experience what an interview is like, also enabled the various school districts an opportunity to search for possible candidates for vacancies that may be occurring in their respective school districts. ( Read More )

Biology major receives Palumbo grant for research

Megan Davis, senior biology major, had the following to say about her research: “The purpose of my research project is to explore the effects of substances on skin cell growth and movement in cell culture conditions. The two substances are: a fairly unexplored carbohydrate from Aloe plants, called Acemannan, and the familiar healing aid, Cortisone. Both substances appear to promote wound repair in mammalian skin, but Acemannan has not been studied in skin cell culture. I plan to use human fibroblast cells in culture for my experiment, which have been studied by scientists for over 30 years and shown to be supported as a very reliable way to explore the effects of the growth of cells. I plan to further explore the use of Acemannan in cell culture, an area not well explored, using this reliable cell culture system. ( Read More )